How much memory do you bring in? I'm planning on 16gb for a five day trip. I can take 500+ pictures in .NEF(RAW) on an 8 gig card. I plan on using the other 8 gig card to record some movie footage.

This is my first year with a digital camera in the b-dub. Thanks!

i bring all i have, 12GB. last summer i ran out of room and had to do some editing to make room.

I used a 4 GB card last May and took around 590 pics in jpeg. I want to get a 16 GB card and take pics in both RAW and jpeg when I go up in May

Jimi - BTW, how long did you expose that star trails pic? Awesome!

I wish I could remember or find my notes jenrobsdad. I'll take a stab at it and guess it was around ten minutes. You can see the campfire light in the lowest branches. Here's a much larger version.

Whats the big difference between jpeg and raw. I have always used jpeg and have raw on my camera, would like to learn more. Also, how do you lock the shutter open for those long shots such as the star trails you guys do? I love taking pictures but am new to much of this and now that i have a new camera i would like to use its full potential:)

The first thing that comes to my mind is I can adjust the white balance in RAW/NEF in PS. I just started learning both systems though. I bet/hope there are a ton more reasons.
On my old 8008 I had a wired remote manual release that could be locked open. All I had to do was watch the time - or not. I lost track of time on one exposure and it pretty much washed out. On my new camera - well I'm still figuring it out. Then I'll do some experiments and post. That is if it ever clears up.

A RAW image is the image that comes right off the image sensor. With the right software, you can adjust white balance, contract, colors, brightness, and others. If you have a lot of disk space and are taking pictures that are "one in a million shots" Use both RAW, and jpeg. You can use jpeg to see what you have taken on any computer, but RAW has to have special software. My next trip up in May I want to use both RAW and jpeg. One last note RAW is not compressed. All the color information is in tact.

So is the special software included with the computer disk that came with my camera or is it something i need to purchase separately? If it is included i should be able to use it now no problem, correct? Thanks for your help, i can't wait to mess with it. Just wish the weather would cooperate!

Yes, the software should have come with your camera. I know Canon and Nikon has software.

am I the only one that still does it old school?

35mm

I bring 40 gigs of memory (in the form of a small 3" x 6" x 1" portable self-powered hard drive that accepts both SD and CF cards). I've had memory cards fail on me in the past...

Regarding RAW format - it provides you with much more flexibility in "developing" your digital image because it is an uncompressed file format. In a sense, you get control over the final print making processes that we used to do in the dark room via your computer. You can manipulate a RAW file much more before turning it into mush... RAW conversion software usually comes with the camera. However, many compact digital cameras do not shoot in RAW but shoot in jpg only.

I will bring in 8 gig of memory for my next trip. That will get me through the trip I hope. I depends on what size you save your pictures in. Jpeg/raw, both, small,med,large format.

lmislinski,

Just came across this thread and noticed you use a 40GB external drive. Is that an Epson P-2000? I picked one up recently and will be using it to back up my CF cards. It also works OK as an MP3 player.

How many Gigabytes of memory you will need will vastly depend on what camera model you own. I own a Canon 5d mkII that shoots images with 21.1 megapixels. My average file size in the RAW file format is about 25 megabytes. So that means I can shoot approximately 40 images per gigabyte of memory. On most days in the boundary waters I do not take much more than 80 photos, so about 2 gigabytes per day of my trip is usually more than enough. For me, a four day trip requires about 8gb of memory. However, if I were canoeing solo, I believe I would have my camera out probably twice as often and may need up to 16gb of memory.

You may want to consider investing in multiple memory cards rather than one very large card. Cards do fail sometimes, especially in a rough, wet environment like the bdub. Having multiple cards will increase your odds of coming home with most of your images even if one card fails. A portable hard drive is something else I plan on investing in as an insurance policy. My photographs are very important to me.

Hyperdrive UDMA is a small hard drive with 120 - 500 GB that you can download your memory card to. Plenty of memory and allows for duplication of many photos.